The floods in China are a global disaster

You may not know it if you watch CNN or Fox News, but China is experiencing its worst flooding in over 100 years, and certainly the worst flooding it has experienced in the modern era since the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.

Background

The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest Hydro-electric power station, completed along the Yangtze River basin in 2006, with additional power station construction and spillway added in 2012. The reservoir it creates is more than 410 miles long, and effectively creates the largest man-made reservoir in the history of the world. The Three Gorges Dam system includes the Dam itself, with its reservoir, power plant and boat locks, and then a series of upstream and downstream levees and dams that collectively make up the drainage and additional power generation plants for other towns and cities along the path of the Yangtze. Importantly, the drainage system downstream of the Three Gorges Dam includes both Wuhan and Shanghai, China.

At the time of its Construction, numerous engineers both in China and from around the world expressed concerns that since the focus of the 3 Gorges Dam project was power generation, insufficient attention was being paid toward flood control. The Yangtze is among the largest rivers in the world both by length and by volume, with only the Amazon River and Nile River producing greater volume of flow. The Yangtze and it's tributary system is also among the most flood-prone regions in the world, with historic floods that killed millions of Chinese. In 1931, a 4-month long flood disaster killed 3.7 Million people and displaced another 14 Million. Again in 1935, floods killed 137,000 people and destroyed entire cities, including Wuhan, China. Again in 1952, the Yangtze basin flooded along the Hubei province where Wuhan is located and killed another 33,000 from flooding plus another estimated 400,000 who later died of a plague (likely Swine Flu) that ravaged through after the floodwaters had receded.

Since the completion of the 3 Gorges Dam, the drainage basin of the Yangtze is also one of the largest food and grain production corridors in the world. Fully 20% of the world's supply of Corn, Maze and many fruits and vegetables are grown in the Yangtze flood basin. China is also the world's largest producer of Rice, Wheat, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Peanuts, Tea, Millet, Barley, Cotton, Corn and Soybeans...with the bulk of these food crops grown in the Yangtze flood basin.

It is also the region of China where they ranch for Hogs, Beef, and, importantly Chicken. More than 30% of the world's supply of Chicken and Eggs are farmed in the drainage basin of the Yangtze River, all of this downstream from the 3 Gorges Dam.

Floods

2020 has proven to be one of the worst Asian Monsoon seasons in history. Rain totals are more than 200% above the past 11 year average in China, but they are not alone, with additional massive flooding striking Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and both North and South Korea. But while there have been deaths and dislocations in many places, none are as impacted as the 3 Gorges Dam region of China.

  • The reservoir system that makes up the 3 Gorges Dam system passed flood stage some 6 weeks ago, and is now classified by China as a Level 2 (Level 1 being the worst and only reachable in the event the Dam's discharge system fails).
  • China has had to destroy more than 2 dozen smaller dams and levees to let floodwaters into the drainage basin - namely, into the farmland, so as to attempt to spare cities downstream from catastrophic flooding.
  • Official numbers out of China are difficult to come by, but estimates from the Taiwanese press indicate that as much as 50% of agriculturally developed lands along the Yangtze have endured some form of flooding in 2020. Millions of acres of agricultural land now sit under as much as 9 feet of floodwaters and will produce zero yield in 2020 and perhaps beyond.
  • The 3 Gorges Dam itself is also in trouble. It had previously shown signs of 'Settling' and 'Buckling' that the Chinese Government had tried to dismiss as distortions in satellite images due to pixelation, but more recent photos also show further buckling in the key spillway section of the Dam, which is under the greatest pressure now as flood channels are kept wide open to prevent the Dam from being overstepped by floodwaters. Structural Engineers from the King's College in London recently issued a dire warning to the UN that they believe the Dam is on the verge of a catastrophic collapse that could place millions of lives at risk downstream.

Why This Could Be a Global Disaster

First is food security. China is not only the world's largest consumer of food (recall they have a population that is four-times greater than the US), but also the world's largest producer and supplier of food in terms of total output. And the primary food growing region of China is the Yangtze River basin and floodplain. We don't yet know the full extent of the damage to the global food supply from these floods, it's still an ongoing disaster where the focus is currently on saving human lives. But certainly, from the images, we have seen coming out of China, millions of acres of productive food-growing land has been rendered useless for the time being. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of livestock have been killed, including Hogs, Cattle, and Chickens. And hundreds of Warehouse buildings and silos that stored previously grown foods are also destroyed or inundated with water.

Secondly, this disaster comes directly on the heels of and in the same region as the COVID-19 Pandemic. The floodwaters that have now displaced hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of Chinese flow directly through the Hubei Province that was the site of the initial outbreak, including Wuhan City itself. Social distancing will now be impossible for the foreseeable future, and the risk of co-infections of other plagues like influenza are very real. And COVID-19 doesn't care about borders or humanitarian efforts. Any outbreak anywhere is a threat to everywhere else because of how easily the virus can be transmitted. But it is especially dangerous for a major outbreak to occur in China, because the world simply cannot trust the CCP to be forthright about what's happening so as to prevent the spread to other countries.

Third, if the 3 Gorges Dam does collapse, it threatens to kill millions of Chinese people downstream. More than 300 million people live downstream of the Yangtze Reservoir. A catastrophic collapse of the dam, however horrible to consider, may well create the worst humanitarian disaster in world history, one that could completely remake the world economy and geopolitical map for generations to come.

And finally, it's key to note that the Asian Floods of 2020 are not localized to China alone. The existence of the 3 Gorges Dam may indeed make this the greatest risk area, but millions of additional acres of food production is also now offline in more than a dozen countries, and COVID-19 related health-safety measures are necessarily being abandon in the very real fight for basic human survival. It may be some months before we know the full extent of crop and animal production losses, but global food supplies are taking a major loss as we speak...and China's weather service just forecast another 10-12 inches of rain by Sunday this week.

What Should Americans Do?

First, please stay informed. There is so much coverage of COVID-19 here in the US, of Donald Trump, of Black Lives Matter, it can become easy to get lost in the cacophony. Find a news service that is providing good International coverage and do the work to keep yourself and your family informed.

Second, if you have the means (and MOST of us do) consider planting a small garden, even if you have to user planter boxes in a window ledge or UV lighting in a spare bedroom. If you can't physically plant a garden, be sure to do what you can to prepare for food security, with long-term and healthy food supplies. At least some extra canned goods, if not more professionally prepared long-term food storage, freeze-dried foods and meat that you store properly.

Finally, if I may be so bold to suggest that we all take a moment to pray. To thank our God for the blessing that we live here, in America, and to pray for the well-being and comfort to those being so dramatically impacted by the twin disasters now in China...the Natural Disaster that is a once per century Monsoon season, and the manmade disaster that is the Chinese Communist Party and its corruption that magnifies the natural disaster there into what threatens to become a global catastrophe.

How private stewardship could REVIVE America’s wild

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The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

EXPOSED: Why the left’s trans agenda just CRASHED at SCOTUS

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You never know what you’re going to get with the U.S. Supreme Court these days.

For all of the Left’s insane panic over having six supposedly conservative justices on the court, the decisions have been much more of a mixed bag. But thank God – sincerely – there was a seismic win for common sense at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It’s a win for American children, parents, and for truth itself.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s state ban on irreversible transgender procedures for minors.

The mostly conservative justices stood tall in this case, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson predictably dissented. This isn’t just Tennessee’s victory – 20 other red states that have similar bans can now breathe easier, knowing they can protect vulnerable children from these sick, experimental, life-altering procedures.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. It’s rooted in a very simple truth that common sense Americans get: kids cannot consent to permanent damage. The science backs this up – Norway, Finland, and the UK have all sounded alarms about the lack of evidence for so-called “gender-affirming care.” The Trump administration’s recent HHS report shredded the activist claims that these treatments help kids’ mental health. Nothing about this is “healthcare.” It is absolute harm.

The Left, the ACLU, and the Biden DOJ screamed “discrimination” and tried to twist the Constitution to force this radical ideology on our kids.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court saw through it this time. In her concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett nailed it: gender identity is not some fixed, immutable trait like race or sex. Detransitioners are speaking out, regretting the surgeries and hormones they were rushed into as teens. WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the supposed experts on this, knew that kids cannot fully grasp this decision, and their own leaked documents prove that they knew it. But they pushed operations and treatments on kids anyway.

This decision is about protecting the innocent from a dangerous ideology that denies biology and reality. Tennessee’s Attorney General calls this a “landmark victory in defense of America’s children.” He’s right. This time at least, the Supreme Court refused to let judicial activism steal our kids’ futures. Now every state needs to follow Tennessee’s lead on this, and maybe the tide will continue to turn.

Insider alert: Glenn’s audience EXPOSES the riots’ dark truth

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Glenn asked for YOUR take on the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, and YOU responded with a thunderous verdict. Your answers to our recent Glennbeck.com poll cut through the establishment’s haze, revealing a profound skepticism of their narrative.

The results are undeniable: 98% of you believe taxpayer-funded NGOs are bankrolling these riots, a bold rejection of the claim that these are grassroots protests. Meanwhile, 99% dismiss the mainstream media’s coverage as woefully inadequate—can the official story survive such resounding doubt? And 99% of you view the involvement of socialist and Islamist groups as a growing threat to national security, signaling alarm at what Glenn calls a coordinated “Color Revolution” lurking beneath the surface.

You also stand firmly with decisive action: 99% support President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell the chaos. These numbers defy the elite’s tired excuses and reflect a demand for truth and accountability. Are your tax dollars being weaponized to destabilize America? You’ve answered with conviction.

Your voice sends a powerful message to those who dismiss the unrest as mere “protests.” You spoke, and Glenn listened. Keep shaping the conversation at Glennbeck.com.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

EXPOSED: Your tax dollars FUND Marxist riots in LA

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Protesters wore Che shirts, waved foreign flags, and chanted Marxist slogans — but corporate media still peddles the ‘spontaneous outrage’ narrative.

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.

According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.

If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.

The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.”

Let’s call this what it is: delusion.

Another ‘peaceful’ riot

If the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.

The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.

And guess who funded it? You did.

According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops.

The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”

This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.

It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.

And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg | Getty Images

This is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.

The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.

Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

The left has lost it

This is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”

But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.

This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.